


The Power of a Good List

by persephonerights



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Identity Reveal, based off someone else's AU, outsider pov, teenagers being nosy teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28001133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephonerights/pseuds/persephonerights
Summary: Evelyn wanted to know how stupid Miles and Ganke thought all their teammates were. Did they really think they were good at hiding secrets? C'mon guys. She wasn't stupid. She knew Miles was Spider-man.---After a series of weird events, one of Miles' classmates finally puts two and two together, and discovers that he's Spider-man. But what does this process look like?
Relationships: Miles Morales & Peter Parker
Comments: 9
Kudos: 102





	The Power of a Good List

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Sidebars](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18990733) by [deniigiq](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deniigiq/pseuds/deniigiq). 



> I really hope you guys like this!! Please read Sidebars first, otherwise this will make absolutely zero sense to be honest!

Honestly, did Miles and Ganke think all their teammates were  _ stupid _ ? They were, but still. Rude. 

Evelyn wasn’t stupid. She knew exactly what she was seeing. Even if it was  _ really _ hard to believe. 

Miles Morales is Spider-man. He is a masked vigilante. The idea is ridiculous. Morales? A superhero? And Ganke his, what, sidekick? Like Wade from Kim Possible?

This theory wasn’t coming out of nowhere, she had proof. Evelyn had compiled the evidence and looked it over. It was sound. She had lists and everything. So, one of her classmates was a vigilante who ran through the night in spandex. What the hell was she going to do with this information?

It wasn’t easy to discover that your classmate was a vigilante. That was a lot of responsibility and it left you with more questions than answers. 

Evelyn had  _ so _ many questions. But before she asked questions she needed to go over all of her evidence and decide if Miles was in any danger, and then she would know what other steps to take. It was hard to be the oldest teammate on AcaDec, she felt like she was responsible for all the babies on the team. 

* * *

It all started when Evelyn met their new AcaDec coach. Their bottom heavy coach with an intense(ly hot) girlfriend. Not inherently criminal, but when you tie to all the other shit that happened it makes total sense. 

Miles was the one who got the new coaches and brought them to the meeting, and they seemed to know each other. It wasn’t weird for kids here at Visions to have nerd mentors. She even had one for coding, so even that didn’t seem suspicious at first. 

She didn’t have a lot of time to think when their new coaches, Peter and MJ had started the drilling early. Evelyn _ loved _ how intense they were. She hated losing and was naturally pretty intense, or maybe that was the Catholicism. Either way, they were going to crush Midtown. God, she wanted to crush Midtown so bad. 

She didn’t have a lot of time to think about Peter and MJ until later that night, when she saw a picture of the full spider-man group on some news article. 

She looked at each of the spider-men and saw something she had seen before but didn’t pay attention to. Brooklyn Spidey looked, roughly, the same size as Miles. But he couldn’t be. Miles had noodle arms. He was small. He was short. He was _ 14 _ . There was no way that kid had ever been in a fight.

Usually, she would just brush this off. She didn’t have time to think about this. She had college shit to worry about, she  _ was _ a junior. And besides, she had reasons enough to not pay attention to that. 

Then something new caught her eye, the original Spider-man. Some people thought the tall guy was the OG, but Evelyn knew better. The OG had saved her sister once, from some asshole in an alleyway. He had stepped in and saved her sister’s life. So, she knew how tall he was. Or at least, James knew how tall he was and told her he was shorter than she thought he would be. 

Everyone online talked about OG Spidey and his body, which is disrespectful, but also understandable. He went from being small skinny to being known for thunder thighs. Kind of like...the new AcaDec coach. She didn’t know what he was like when he was younger but now he was bottom heavy and knew it, if the fit of his pants were anything to go by. How else could he pull a girlfriend that hot? 

Evelyn didn’t want to think about this anymore so she didn’t. She shoved the thought into the back of her mind, but it lingered. 

* * *

Of course, that could be explained away. You know what couldn’t be explained away? Captain American. Captain fucking America. 

Evelyn got to meet Captain fucking American. And Bucky Barnes. And Sam Wilson. And the only thing she could think about was how Peter even knew Captain America and how that worked with her theory about who Peter was. 

Captain America’s house was covered in plants. It made Evelyn feel safe and warm and she never wanted to leave. Not only were there plants everywhere, Bucky goddamn Barnes stayed and watched their practice. Evelyn’s pretty sure she’s never focused so well in her _ life _ . 

Then, Captain America himself gifted all of them with ice pops for being good at something. They were gifted for having knowledge by seeing Steve Rogers himself in a workout tank top and leggings. 

This was the best day of Evelyn’s life. 

* * *

Practices kept going, and they were pretty good, even if they didn’t feature any famous superheroes. That the team knew of. The team all got along pretty well, most of them had classes together and were friends. Most of the older kids didn’t do things like acadec, they usually used it as a stepping stone to get into more intense and topic specific clubs. Evelyn stayed because she liked the competition. If she didn’t have time to play a sport she might as well do AcaDec. (God, who was she? That was pure nerd bullshit and she needed to stop it right now.)

The team was taking a break and talking about hyperfixations with Coach Peter. They had gotten on the topic of snails at some point and had their coach’s full attention.

While Peter was trying to catch a snail, Evelyn saw something out of the corner of her eye. She saw Ganke’s notebook open to a picture he was drawing of Spider-man? With bat wings? It made her laugh before she followed the rest of her team to look at the snail Peter had caught. 

It was weird that Ganke was drawing Spider-man considering last practice he had loudly proclaimed that Daredevil was his favorite superhero, making direct eye contact with Miles. Peter had laughed while Miles pouted. This made sense because Miles had declared all the Captain America’s as his favorites. So maybe this was just a fight about superheroes and maybe Ganke was just doodling.

Maybe.

* * *

It had gotten to the point where it was list time. Evelyn  _ loved _ lists. They just made life easier. More organized. She firmly believed any problem could be caused by the power of a good list. 

So she sat down one Saturday when she was home in her and her sister’s apartment, took out a piece of paper, and started her list. She made three columns: Reasons Why (in red), Shady But Not Criminal (in purple), and Reasons Why Not (in blue). Then, she began to write down all of her evidence and organize it into these separate categories.

Under Reasons Why she had: Ganke’s drawing of Spider-man (seriously dude? It’s an open notebook and I’m  right here) and Ganke using the fav superhero against Miles. Neither of these were inherently damning. But they were potential reasons why Miles could be spider-man. 

Under Shady But Not Criminal: bottom heavy coach w/ sleep deprivation and a hot gf, the bottom heavy coach knows CAPTAIN AMERICA, AND works at Stark Industries?? Wtf did Miles find him, and twisted ankle. A few weeks ago Miles twisted his ankle right after Brooklyn Spidey took a bad spill on TV. Coincidence? Maybe. But when it was put with everything else it looked hella suspicious. 

Under Reasons Why Not: noodle arms, cop dad (fuck 12 ♥), he’s  14 , and Brooklyn Spidey can climb walls. 14-year-olds aren’t supposed to fight crime. They just aren’t. Especially not 14-year-olds whose Dad’s are cops and could throw them in jail for what they’re doing. 

She didn’t have any evidence in either direction. She needed to collect more. But first, Evelyn had to cook dinner for her sister. Ever since their parents died James took such good care of her and she had to pay it forward as often as she could. 

Being a nurse was hard, and Evelyn was proud of her sister. So if cooking for her made her night easier she would do it as often as she could. 

* * *

The week following her list making something damning happened. A crazy guy showed up at their school and their principal had to call the cops. 

He was standing outside the school, yelling that he was Spider-man. Or at least a disciple of him. Evelyn’s whole History class was crowded by the windows that faced the street. Usually her teacher would complain but today it seemed like she was interested too. 

Somehow, two different Spider-men somehow turned up before the cops did. Wonder why? Did someone call them? A smaller version of Spider-man perhaps? 

Evelyn watched as the taller Spidey and OG Spidey began to harass the guy claiming he was one of them. It was pretty funny. OG Spidey was pretending to be dead while Louis yelled at the imposter to save him. Evelyn joined in the fake crying and wailing of her classmates, the free entertainment was so worth it. 

Before OG Spidey could be saved, Brooklyn Spidey showed up! Hooray! It was a miracle! Or was it? The school went crazy cheering for him, but Evelyn was stuck in her own head. How did the imposter know to come here? How did Miles sneak out? How did the other Spideys know where the school was. Unless one of them spent a lot of time here. Coaching an AcaDec team. 

Evelyn had a list to update. 

* * *

AcaDec finals were here. And they were sharing a fucking bus with Midtown. Apparently Midtown’s team were Spongebob fans. Kill her now. 

The Spongebob was insufferable. You know what wasn’t insufferable? Winning. God they better fucking win. Thankfully, MJ began to quiz them and they were able to partially drown out the sounds of Spongebob.

For lunch they were allowed to run all their energy out on an unused playground. Evelyn went straight for the swings and didn’t leave them. She, Ernie, Miles, and Ganke all talked for a little bit by the swings before something happened. Something weird. Miles went dead silent and rigid. He wasn’t talking when it happened, Ernie was, but it was hard not to notice. Evelyn followed his line of sight and saw him making dead eye contact with Peter. The intense and the creepiness made a shiver go down her spine. 

What the fuck?

* * *

Then, at Nationals, they found a rifle in a compost heap. Because of course they fucking did. Jasmin found it first and then everyone had clambered around it. 

While they stared at it, Miles muttered under his breath, “Are you fucking serious?”

“We have to hide it!” Kailee said, with a panicked look in her eye.

Ernie went to grab it before Evelyn grabbed her and pulled her back. “Oh my god don’t touch it! You don’t want to leave any prints. I’ll touch it.”

So Evelyn was now holding a gun whose barrel was broken off in her hands. Who could rip a barrel in half. Spider-man. Goddammit Peter, here of all places? This was a fucking travesty. 

“We need to hide it _ now _ guys,” Kailee reminded them. 

“I’m gonna tie it to a flagpole,” Miles said. Then he grabbed it out of Evelyn’s hands and walked calmly to the flagpole. Watching all around him for any eyes. Then he shoved the broken pieces somewhere in his clothes and climbed up the fucking flagpole. 

The whole team watched as he did it and Jun said from beside her, “That is like, hella impressive.”

* * *

The team watched as a kid wrapped in spiderwebs was taken off the flagpole by the police. After they won second place. Second place!! A gunman was caught and they won second place! 

Evelyn got on the bus, proud of what she and her teammates had accomplished. They got to relax and fall asleep on the bus on the way back. She was happy they won and satisfied with how the day ended. She had so many things to think about. So many things to add to the list. 

While she was asleep, She was woken up a little bit by movement to her left. Peter was lifting Miles out of his seat. She could wake up all the way and pay attention, or she could sleep on. She went back to sleep. The evidence she had was enough for now. And sleep was her reward for a good competition. 

* * *

The day after AcaDec finals Evelyn updated her list. She had to. Evelyn was 99% sure that Miles was Spider-man now. Was she going to do anything about it? Probably not. What could she do, approach an eight grader and tell him, “Hey I’m 99% sure you spend your nights swinging around New York in spandex and kicking ass”? Fuck no.

What if he called her crazy and said there was no way? What if he had to tell all of the Spideys she knew? She didn’t want to give the kid a panic attack about her knowing. Also what if 99% wasn’t sure enough? What if he really wasn’t Spider-man? For now, she would simply watch and make sure he was okay. That would have to be enough. 

So, hidden away in her apartment was proof that Miles Morales, an eighth grader from Brooklyn, had superpowers and apparently knew how to use them. 

**Author's Note:**

> This was a lot of fun to write and was different than what I usually write, if you liked it please comment/kudos! Also feel free to follow me on [tumblr](https://persephonerights.tumblr.com/)!


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